A well-crafted book that may inspire kids to embark on their own city adventures.
A young girl learns about San Francisco’s history through a fantastic adventure in Fan’s series-starting illustrated chapter book for middle-grade readers.
Mika and her pet unicorn, Polo, begin their adventure in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park while picnicking with her parents near the Japanese Tea Garden. At the garden’s Taiwanese pavilion, Mika “stared at the golden Chinese characters on the pavilion’s bright red columns. Suddenly, they changed before her eyes, spelling out a secret message!” Mika and Polo take a closer look and are transported to the California Academy of Sciences, where they find out that Tyrannosaurus rex is known as the “king of the dinosaurs”; a T. rex skeleton provides them the second clue of their adventure. Further clues take Mika and Polo around San Francisco; along the way, Fan shares informative historical details with her young readers and introduces city landmarks, including a statue of the Greek goddess Nike at Union Station, Lombard Street’s twists and turns, and the Palace of Fine Arts, where Mika receives a magical scepter that allows her to pass through special gateways in time. Throughout, the author weaves engaging facts about San Francisco and its history into a compelling adventure. Soylu’s painterly cartoon illustrations are colorful and whimsical, with a sassy protagonist and an adorable unicorn. (Mika is portrayed with brown skin; her father is noted in the text to be Taiwanese, and her mother is identified as Latina.) The illustrations ably reflect the real-life locations, including the tall, arched bridges of Golden Gate Park; a very simple map of the city is included.
A well-crafted book that may inspire kids to embark on their own city adventures.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9781737938019
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Paradigm Method
Review Posted Online: Feb. 14, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dizzyingly silly.
The famous superhero returns to fight another villain with all the trademark wit and humor the series is known for.
Despite the title, Captain Underpants is bizarrely absent from most of this adventure. His school-age companions, George and Harold, maintain most of the spotlight. The creative chums fool around with time travel and several wacky inventions before coming upon the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, making its return for vengeance after sitting out a few of the previous books. When the good Captain shows up to save the day, he brings with him dynamic action and wordplay that meet the series’ standards. The Captain Underpants saga maintains its charm even into this, the 11th volume. The epic is filled to the brim with sight gags, toilet humor, flip-o-ramas and anarchic glee. Holding all this nonsense together is the author’s good-natured sense of harmless fun. The humor is never gross or over-the-top, just loud and innocuous. Adults may roll their eyes here and there, but youngsters will eat this up just as quickly as they devoured every other Underpants episode.
Dizzyingly silly. (Humor. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-50490-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
Charming.
An assortment of unusual characters form friendships and help each other become their best selves.
Mr. and Mrs. Tupper, who live at Number 3 Ramshorn Drive, are antiquarians. Their daughter, Jillian, loves and cares for a plant named Ivy, who has “three speckles on each leaf and three letters in her name.” Toasty, the grumpy goldfish, lives in an octagonal tank and wishes he were Jillian’s favorite; when Arthur the spider arrives inside an antique desk, he brings wisdom and insight. Ollie the violet plant, Louise the bee, and Sunny the canary each arrive with their own quirks and problems to solve. Each character has a distinct personality and perspective; sometimes they clash, but more often they learn to empathize, see each other’s points of view, and work to help one another. They also help the Tupper family with bills and a burglar. The Fan brothers’ soft-edged, old-fashioned, black-and-white illustrations depict Toasty and Arthur with tiny hats; Ivy and Ollie have facial expressions on their plant pots. The Tuppers have paper-white skin and dark hair. The story comes together like a recipe: Simple ingredients combine, transform, and rise into something wonderful. In its matter-of-fact wisdom, rich vocabulary (often defined within the text), hint of magic, and empathetic nonhuman characters who solve problems in creative ways, this delightful work is reminiscent of Ferris by Kate DiCamillo, Our Friend Hedgehog by Lauren Castillo, and Ivy Lost and Found by Cynthia Lord and Stephanie Graegin.
Charming. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781665942485
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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